Virtually every book on goal setting includes a chapter on visualization – visualize your goals and they will magically come true.
I’ve always considered this poppycock!
Without focused hard work, nothing happens – sitting in an armchair and manifesting outcomes just does not gel with me. My left-brain-thinking mind just rebels!
Or so I thought . . . .
Recently I did a course on Mind Power. I did not pay for the coarse as a client did a quid-pro-quo deal with me and volunteered to coach me at no charge.
Now my mind might spend a good part of the day on the left side but I still remain open to new ideas, especially when it affects my work. Mind power technology is taking on a new place in everyday thinking and I at least have the good sense to explore its theory even though the practice worries me.
Tongue in cheek, I went along with the process.
Visualization is a technique that is used to ‘bring closer’ those things that you want in your life.
Want a new Merc Sports? Well think about it often enough, in every conceivable detail, and it is likely to arrive quicker. This is the theory.
And there are many successful business people and sportsmen who corroborate the virtues of visualization.
For me though there was one big disconnect – I could just not grasp that attaining things could be so easy.
That was until I tried one of the course’s tutorials – I was to think of an outcome of something that I wanted to achieve and spend quality time visualizing that I had obtained it.
I go walking in the early morning on most days. I’ve been wanting to increase my space to a slow jog to improve my cardio burn. So I decided to visualize myself jogging up a long hill close to where I live.
At this juncture I have to say that there was no way that I ever would believe that I could accomplish such a monumental goal – impossible! But to humour my coach I agreed to at least try.
So each morning, whilst on my routine walking route I imagined myself running up the hill.
And then the magic happened.
One cold morning a few weeks after commencing the visualization exercises I did it!
Now this was a moment of magic for me as I just found myself pushing through all my mental barriers to achieve this remarkable outcome – I ran up the hill and back against all probable expectation.
And a few days later I did it again!
Now it is important to stress that this was an effortless process. By simply picturing myself running along the route I was able to create the experience with surprisingly little effort.
I have now started using visualization in other areas of my life. Strangely enough the results have not been that profound. There must be a good reason why it works so well with exercise and less so with other pursuits especially things like losing weight.
When I find the answer I’ll let you know!